A/N: Thanks to everyone who read and reviews are very much appreciated. I realized it was unfair to say they would go in alphabetical order without saying who was coming up. So, next chapter we will hear from Mandy Bucklehurst.
-----------
Susan stared at her coffee cup with unfocused eyes. The coffee had long since gone cold in its mug. The remains of breakfast—half finished sausage links, cold eggs, and dried toast—sat sadly on the table before her. She didn't have the heart to get up and deposit the leftovers in the trash and clean the dishes.
Earlier that morning, her husband, Justin, had come down to find Susan, sitting exactly like she was right now. He tried to shake her out of her trance, but she pointedly ignored him. He shrugged and made breakfast for himself, cooking up just a little extra for his wife, ate it in silence, and left for work. No words were exchanged, no kisses given, not even a small peak on the forehead for the woman he might not see at the end of the day.
But Susan just didn't care if she saw Justin again. Yes, she admitted to herself, she loved him. She loved spending passionate nights with him, but that was all. Their unbridled passion and deep-seated fear were the only reasons they had gotten married in the first place. At the time, they loved each other so much they couldn't bear to think about being apart. However, those days were gone now.
They had only done it because of Hannah and Ernie. It was at their wedding, immediately after graduating from Hogwarts, that Justin and Susan had first come up with the idea of getting married. Filled with Firewhiskey and freshly admitted to the Order of the Phoenix, it seemed like a brilliant plan. With a small sneer, Susan recalled the day.
It had been a June wedding of course, Hannah wouldn't have had it otherwise. She was always the traditionalist, especially when it came to her Muggle mother. Susan was the maid of honor and Justin the best man. It was an unusually small and simple wedding, considering Ernie was the groom. Susan was certain he wanted to have every last one of his magical family there, but Hannah, the only woman who could ever talk him out of things, instead of immediate family only, as well as Susan and Justin.
The ceremony was quick. Hannah didn't even wear a white dress or carry any flowers. Afterwards, they all went to the Leaky Cauldron for a very small, very quick party. Within hours, the families had gone and Ernie had retreated to a room upstairs with a very flushed Hannah following with a giggle, leaving Susan and Justin together at the bar.
"Firewhiskey," Justin commanded. "Leave the bottle." Tom the barkeep did as he was told and Justin moved two seats down, his precious bottle in tow, to where Susan was with an empty shot glass. "To friends," he stated, raising a newly filed glass of Firewhiskey as he tipped the contents of the bottle into Susan's empty.
"To love," she retaliated, raising hers and downing it in one smooth motion.
"Not much of that going around these days," he replied, spinning his empty between his two fingers. "Except for these two, of course." With a nod, he implicated Hannah and Ernie. The tell tale sounds of lovemaking (BUMPsqueak) were now wafting down into the empty bar.
The pair sat in silence, not daring to look at each other as they tried not to listen to their newly wedded friends. The sounds stopped sooner than any of them expected and Justin, clearing his throat, poured another shot for Susan and then him. She mumbled thank you and drank it. Justin drained his more slowly, putting it down and staring deeply into it, like it held some kind of secret.
"You wanna get married?" he asked suddenly without looking at Susan. She didn't look back at him either.
"Sure," she replied. He poured them another drink and then took the shots together quickly.
Their ceremony was even smaller than their friends; only Ernie and Hannah were in attendance. There was no post party, they just returned to Justin's flat and spent a night of love making before returning to work with the Order the next day. No romance, no love, not even a ring, just marriage for the sake of marriage.
Since then, it had been a year of polite conversation after wild sex. But even the polite conversation was drifting away recently. Susan couldn't remember the last time they had kissed but she remembered quite clearly the last time they made love. And this was not satisfactory.
She had toyed with the idea of getting pregnant to save the marriage. She would have loved if they could work things out, but it wasn't going to happen and having a child was not going to save things. It would only make them worse. Then Hannah got knocked up and McGonagall said that child was going to stop all Death Eater activity, it seemed even more pointless. All their energy was going to go towards raising the MacMillian baby instead.
Another, deeper sneer marred Susan's otherwise pretty features. Ernie would be so happy that his child was going to be the next savior. And Hannah! Perfect Hannah with her new perfect baby. Why should Susan suffer to raise her best friends baby? Susan chastised herself for thinking these thoughts. Hannah was her friend and Susan knew she wouldn't want her child to be in danger, which she was. Susan thought of the Potters and hoped that wouldn't happen to her friends.
This had been one of the few things Susan and Justin had talked about recently, the MacMillian baby. A brief conversation agreeing they'd do whatever they could to help their friends and that had been it.
As her thoughts turned back to Justin, tears fell down her cheeks as she stared even deeper into her cup. This had been the test she had set forth for Justin. And he had failed miserably. If he had done something, anything, it would have been better than what he did. Finally, Susan moved, slowly unwrapping her fingers from her mug. She moved into the bathroom, drying her eyes of tears as she went. Her face had red blotches on her cheeks, but she braided her hair quickly, used the toilet, and Apparated to the Order headquarters. Even if her marriage was falling apart, she had to protect her friends.